On my second play through of this and honestly my biggest complaint is that they didn't just have the bosses give you Scadutree fragments. Instead they hid them around the map in random nooks and crannies, and there's 50 of them so no way are you remembering where they all are. The last thing I want to do on a second run of a game is spend time scrounging through every dusty corner, I just want to fight all the bosses and see all the major high points.
They also put more than enough of them on the main route through all content though
>I have to...play the game and explore??? AAAAAH I'M GOING INSAAAANE
>>733700931It’s to make you really consider going after the hard to reach items. Like you see a purple in the distance and in base Elden Ring you’d probably just ignore it after level 70 or so but in SOTE that could be the best item in the game, a fucking piece of bark. But yes I don’t really get the point after Rellana. Dancing Lion could’ve been in base game as scadu 0 makes it feel like a mohg-level fight, but Rellana really shows a noticeable difference as her phase 1 damage at 0 scadu is about the same as her phase 2 damage at 4 scadu (which you can reach by just picking up the fragments in the first two dungeons and on the road to them). But after that? Putrescent, Scadu Avatar, Gaius, Romina, Midra, and Messmer all feel around the same level. Metyr, Bayle, and Radahn are above that but honestly I think they could’ve just shaved off most of the scadu levels as 20 is a lot considering that like 13-20 doesn’t feel that impactful at all, especially after the day 5 patch they did.
>>733700931>random nooks and cranniesThe majority of scadutree fragments are signposted with landmarks or specific enemies (the glowing shadows carrying pots on their heads, golden hippos) so that they're visible from a distance. The attack and defense scaling of blessings also falls off a cliff after 12 (out of 20 total), so there's no real reason to gather every single one. You need a total of 26 fragments for 12 blessings, half of the 50 available.Churches (most visible):>2x in Gravesite plain>2x in Scadu Altus>2x in Forbidden WoodsCrosses (second most visible)>4x in Gravesite Plain>1x hidden in Belurat>1x in Cerulean Coast>3x in Scadu Altus>1x in Shadow Keep's specimen storeroom>1x hidden in the Cerulean Coast fissure>1x in Rauh>1x in Enir ElimStatues of Marika (third most visible, and almost always in Messmer's camps)>1x in Gravesite Plain>3x in Scadu Altus>1x in Shadow Keep's church district>1x in Shadow Keep, before MessmerPot enemies:>2x in Gravesite Plain, signposted with graveyards>1x in Scadu Altus>2x hidden in RauhHippos:>2x from the hippo guarding the Shadow Keep entrance>2x hidden below Scadu Altus>1x in Charo's Hidden Grave>1x in RauhEven discounting the ones that I've marked as "hidden" because they're not visible from a distance, aren't signposted by some sort of environmental feature, or require you to actually explore the map properly, that's a total of 28 fragments, more than enough to hit the 26 required for the blessing softcap. You can call me autistic if you want, but I see this repeated about the DLC / scadutree fragments over and over when it simply isn't true. You don't need them all, the majority of them aren't hidden, and you get more than you need to hit the blessing softcap from simply progressing through the game and paying attention.Now if you were to tell me that scadutree blessings are poorly explained in-game, I'd agree.
>>733701880Also, there are only a handful of fragments that are truly in "fuck you" locations thorughout the DLC:>1x tucked away in an alcove in Cerulean Coast>1x in a random dead end in Abyssal Woods>1x on a corpse in lower Rauh that you're likely to see if you explore the area at all (near the two-handed talisman)>1x in a dead end below Scadu Altus that you're likely to go down regardlessThat's it.
>>733701880this list is missing several free fragments just sitting around in the final dungeon
>>733700931I don't hate it. But I do think it's interesting I beat the base game five times but the dlc only once.
>>733702357Happens when you suck ass at the game
>>733702357Lol the DLC bosses scare you
>>733700931You get 1.85x damage at 26 fragments and the last 24 only get you to 2.05x stop crying bitch nigga
radahn and bayle zero scadu strat?
>>733700931The worst part of the DLC was the big empty areas with nothing in them.The worst part of the main game was also the big empty areas with nothing in them.
>>733703631NOOOOOOOOOOO IT'S LE EMPTY MY DOPAMINE RECEPTORS
The worst part of the DLC is the piss color for the entire Shadow Altus holy fuck, what is this? A PS3 game?
>>733703631what was the purpose of that fuckhuge black gigantic zone with nothing but random enemies that snipe you and one (1) finger in the middle?there's literally nothing theresome parts do feel incomplete and like bamco demanded them to ship the dlc already
>>733703739Thought it looked great, Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree have the most varied color palette in all Souls games
>>733703818It's just so bleak and ugly, yeah the world is fucked up but I don't want to deal with this, especially on the largest region of the DLC, at least give us more Cerulean Coast aesthetics
>>733703875>willingfully buy dark fantasy simulator: open world edition>made by a studio who almost makes nothing but dark fantasy simulators in various settings>wtf! it's le bleak and le ugly!
>>733703940Rauh is fine, Cerulean is fine hell fucking finger ruins are fine, I just to don't like dark yellow piss stains.
>>733702513Elden Ring was good about making it so most bosses couldn't just be circlestrafed and ass stabbed to death. So it is really funny that the optimal strategy to fight Consort Radahn is to circlestrafe and ass stab him like it is 2011 all over again.
>>733703782They were meant to feel like Ash Lake, maybe.
>>733702513I'm more scared of Malenia than Radahn to be honest, Waterfowl is going to be my biggest filter in this game.
>>733704119or you can use a shieldor you can use the deflect tearor you can buff yourself so hard that you can face tank himor you can use whatever spirit ash to get the attention of the boss away from youor you can use status effectsor you can use a build that will destroy his posture fastor you can learn to parry him old school
When is it going on sale I'm not gonna drop 30 dollars for a 10 hour DLC
>>733704260>10 hour dlcLOL
>>733704242>shieldMeh, most builds don't have the Endurance for that, and constantly spamming Barricade Shield is trite. It isn't Malenia where you only need the Ash for one move. >deflect tearFun, not optimal. >face tankSure, read a guide on how to do it first.>spirit ashes 2 are useful, Tiche and Taylew. The rest all get nuked by AOEs before they can do anything. If you aren't running a Faith build to spam Heal from Afar, Taylew is also useless. >status Just part of the circlestrafe and ass stab strat. >poiseAgain, just part of the circlestrafe and ass stab strat>parryLol, what are you, gay?
>>733704409>I must optimize the fun out of the game
>>733704409You are bad at video games
>>7337037821.) It very likely is time constraints, to an extent.2.) FromSoft experimented with the open world in the DLC in three ways:>1. More vertical designI think this was successful.>2. Distributing locations, items, etc. much more intentionallyEvery specific section of the Land of Shadow is more clearly delineated than the Lands Between, and it's usually very obvious when you've found the thing you're supposed to find. There are a few exceptions to this, but on average there's a clearer distinction between worthwhile and worthless parts of the open world. The most blatant example of this is how side dungeons are signified to the player: gaols have cages outside of them, catacombs have coffins outside of them, and forges are surrounded by different architecture. They did this to a lesser extent in the base game (some out-of-the-way caves and catacombs are signified by braziers or jellyfish, for example), but the DLC is much better about it.>3. Set piece areasJagged Peak, Ruins of Rauh, Finger Ruins, and Abyssal Woods. The Finger Ruins are basically the Ash Lake equivalent of Elden Ring: an atmospheric area with very little actual "content" in them, but in Elden Ring's case they decided to integrate them into a DLC-spanning side quest that ends with a unique boss. I like Jagged Peak and Ruins of Rauh, but I think the Finger Ruins needed to be more structured and Abyssal Woods' concept is just fundamentally incompatible with the open world. I think people didn't get what FromSoft was going for with the Finger Ruins, which leads to over-exploring the area instead of realizing that they're simply another area of the DLC where you're supposed to find one thing, but bigger.
>>733704554If you were good at them you'd be rich for it.
>>733704119Yeah, this is why I dislike Radahn>90% of the game you can experiment with all sorts of different defensive options like strafing, spacing, jumping, sprint jumping, low profiling, etc.>even if you get hit, it's fine because that's how these games work>final DLC boss deals one gorillion damage and almost all of his close range attacks need to be rolled (you can strafe some of his ranged attacks, but obviously you don't get a punish off of this)
>>733704625>>final DLC boss deals one gorillion damagehe doesn't though
